The scramble for a loose ball. Allen’s moonwalk to the perfect spot, just beyond the three-point line. And his impossibly quick catch-and-release.

Yet, as he told it later, the bucket was the result of a lifetime of practice.

“Believe it or not, I work on it quite often,” said Allen, who finished Miami’s 103-100 Game 6 Houdini act victory against San Antonio with 9 points, including two critical free throws in overtime. “I try to put my body in precarious situations coming from different parts of the floor, different angles to try to get my momentum going forward.

“When it went in, I was ecstatic,” he added. “But at the same time I was expecting to make it.”